I'm glad you posted this, as I happened to catch a pilot checking in with ZDV (last week) at FL 650, which I assumed was a U2. I went back and listened to the archive but couldn't catch the callsign. However, another pilot asked Denver Center if he heard the altitude correctly and the controller confirmed he had, so at least I knew I wasn't hearing things...

Thanks for the clip! Always an awesome listen.Not that it answers the question about the mission but just some extra info. X-RAY is a callsign for U2's out of Palmdale and PINION is used for Beale. Some older ones that I don't believe are used any longer are KODAK, LLOYD, and DRAGON.

Recorded off my Icom R7000. I originally heard him talking to Beaver Control within offshore warning area W-291. Beaver switched him over to LA Center on 277.4 which is recorded (VHF = 119.95). This is the high-altitude sector that runs north-south between LA and San Diego. Usually the U-2s operate on the LA Center ultra high altitude frequency of 369.9. For some reason, they were using the regular high-altitude UHF frequencies for this mission.

The controller wasn't interested in the flight plan for traffic reasons. He was just getting the info from the U2 to enter into the HOST computer for automation reasons. A military routing like that, which included a delay, is very tedious to enter and it must be properly formatted before it can be handed off to the next controller.